Texas

Below you will find information related to using Waze in the State of Texas. All editors in the state are required to have a non usa_username, have their private messaging turned on, and turn live users on in the layers menu. Do not edit in Invisible mode if you are a rank 3 or below. Please pay attention to the chat window in the lower right-hand part the map editor (and introduce yourself if you're a first-time editor). You can find useful info there and ask questions. You can also find useful information at the Texas forum page. You can also join Slack and chat with Texas editors, as well as the state managers (SM) and regional coordinator (RC). Once you receive the Slack invitation, login and join the #texas channel.

Special roads

Dirt Roads. In Texas ALL roads that are unpaved or gravel are considered dirt roads as this is how GPS Nav users (any brand) expect the "Avoid Dirt Roads" feature to behave. These roads should be deleted when going through farm land, ranch land, or mountainous areas throughout the state, as they are most likely base import roads and not real roads. For roads which are labeled with names and are actually dirt on SATIMG, please keep these and make them dirt roads.

Frontage roads Name as "Frontage Rd" unless the corresponding highway has an alternate name. I-635 Frontage roads are labeled as "Lyndon B Johnson Freeway" as that is the local name for I-635.

Alleys and driveways are NOT MAPPED

Any road which is a main road for a state park can be a Primary Street . Other roads can be Street .

Non-drivable roads

Generally, if a road can't be driven on (e.g. Walking Trail, Pedestrian Boardwalk, Stairway, Ranch road in the middle of nowhere) then it should not be mapped in Waze. This is due to the way the routing engine works, as Waze WILL route users to drive on these "Non-Drivable" road types.

Railroads mapped in Texas should follow the current standard of editing. All crossings should be connected to drivable segments accordingly. If no crossing exists, elevate the segment accordingly.

ONLY enter a name for the railroad segment if the tracks are historical in nature, a major landmark, or a routine destination for Wazers. In TX, very few segments should be named and most 'routine destinations' will be covered by a Place point/area for the train station.

The Waze app now renders railroad tracks as such so naming serves little purpose any longer.

Miscellaneous

U-turns are labeled as "Turnaround" and set to whatever type identified in FC (if not typed in FC, match it to the lowest road type that it touches - similar to AGCs).

Road Lock Standards

In Texas we have a set minimum standard for locking roads based on segment type. Any road of a certain segment type must be locked at least to the rank (level) in the chart below. Roads may be locked higher for protection and special situations (areas with construction, tricky design, frequent mistakes, imaging inaccuracies, and the like), but should not be locked lower. If you find a road locked to a higher level than its minimum, please leave it locked no lower than that level when you have finished editing.

Texas Minimum Locking Rank Standard

Segment Type

Lock Level

Freeway

5

Ramp

4

Major Highway

4

Minor Highway

3

Primary Street

2

Street

Automatic (1)

Private Road

2

• • • • Ferry • • • •

5

|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| Railroad |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|

2

Functional Classification of Roads

Texas participates in functional classification across the entire state. We promote a hybrid FC to ensure for the best routing possible for all Wazers. The hybrid FC basically means a state highway would never be typed less than Minor Highway (mH).

Frontage roads along Freeways should be matched to FC. If FC does not list the frontage road, type it as a Primary Street.

Turnarounds (those labeled as Turnaround, not cross-overs), should be matched to FC. If FC does not list the Turnaround, match it to the lowest road type that it touches - similar to AGCs.

FC cross reference

Refer to this chart to determine the road type of a given paved public road based on the functional class.

To use this chart, first determine the functional class of a road, and whether it is a signed, numbered highway in a particular highway system.

Where the column for the road's highway system and the row for the road's functional class meet, you will find the proper road type for that particular road.

^a When a state highway "SPUR" route is used to connect a state highway with another state highway, a US highway, or an Interstate (i.e., when it is used as a connector/CONN route), use the first state highway column.

An Interstate Business Loop classified as a Minor Arterial is a Major Highway .

A US Highway classified as a Minor Arterial is a Major Highway .

A US Highway Spur route classified as a Minor Arterial is a Minor Highway .

A State Highway classified as an Other Freeway is a Freeway .

A State Highway classified as a Collector is a Minor Highway .

A County Route classified as a Minor Arterial is a Minor Highway .

A County Route classified as a Collector is a Primary Street

A locally-maintained road classified as an Other Principal Arterial is a Major Highway .

A locally-maintained road classified as a Collector is a Primary Street .

Legend

Fw

Freeway

Major

Major Highway

Minor

Minor Highway

PS

Primary Street

Street

Street

FC issues by TxDot

If you find any issues where FC changes unexpectedly such as in the image (the small section of green in between 2 red sections), please let the Texas Regional Coordinator (RC) know exactly where this is located, so TxDOT can be notified.

Places Locking Standards

Places should be completed as fully as possible anytime they are created or updated. At a minimum, editors should:

verify correct spelling of the name, using the guidelines below

complete the address, to help when choosing among search results in the app, and

ensure the correct location of the Point or Stop Point, to guide drivers to the correct location. Note that this may not always be on the street side of the location.

Phone numbers and opening hours are also particularly helpful to Wazers. Complete them whenever possible, using an online search, if necessary. Photos should help Wazers recognize the destination when they arrive.

When completed, places should be locked, to prevent inadvertent damage. Please don't lock places to their highest level until most of their information is completed, but do lock to a level higher than 1, once you have verified any information, to help protect from accidental damage through client submissions. The following are recommended (minimum) levels:

4 - Hospitals, universities, park and ride lots, arenas, airports

4 - Large areas - (State Parks, if mapped, etc.)

3 - Police Dept / Fire Station and all government buildings

3 - Gas Station

Most other places should be locked at 3, once completed.

Naming Standards

We are standardizing the naming of most public facilities and businesses. This makes search results more consistent and useful, and gives Wazers a more professional and uniform experience. The names have been designed to work well with instant search, regular search, and to be clear and concise in the map display. Please follow these guidelines when naming the places described below.

Places which are part of a larger area place (e.g. place points for parking lots in a university area, separate ER entrances in a hospital area, etc.) should be named with their unique name followed by a hyphen and the name of the larger area they belong to. For example "ER - Parkland Hospital"

Government Agencies

All places for the following agencies should be named according to the standards as follows:

City and County Offices: City or County Name followed by City Hall or department or agency as appropriate, for example:

"Dallas City Hall"

"Travis County Probation"

"Bexar County Courthouse"

Police and Sheriff's Departments: City, Agency or Division Name followed by "Police Station/Dept" or "Sheriff's Office/Dept" (should match signage), for example:

"Dallas Police Dept"

"Austin Police - North Substation "

"Tarrant County Sheriff's Dept"

"Travis County Sheriff's Office"

Fire Stations: Agency Name or abbreviation followed by “Fire Station – “ and the station number. For example:

"DFD Fire Station - 15"

"Austin Fire Station - 3"

"Whitehouse Vol Fire Station - 2"

Light Rail Stations: Start with the Agency, which line, followed by the station name. For example:

"DART Rail – Akard Street Station"

"DART Green Line – Fair Park Station"

In general, City Bus stops should not be mapped.

United States Postal Service: Start the name with CDP or Station name, then append “Post Office”. Place the City name and the ZIP code of the Post Office in the Description box, so it will be viewable in the app GO page. Alternate name should be “USPS”. For example:

US VA Hospitals/Centers/Clinics: Should be named with their official name as the primary name. For VA hospitals/medical centers "(US Veterans Only)" should be added to the end of the primary name, and as the first line of the description. In the primary name, "VA" should be expanded as "Veterans Affairs", so as not to cause a TTS conflict with Virginia. Names can be shortened to remove extraneous words; for example, replace "Campus of the" from the official name with a hyphen (-). Any colloquial names should be added as alt names, so they are returned in search results, and also at the beginning of the description, so they are visible on the place preview page in the client. Some examples:

Gas Stations

Places

Parking Lots

Please provide as much info about a place as possible. However, DO NOT COPY FROM WEBSITES as this is plagiarism and will not be tolerated. The most common form is copying straight from Wikipedia. Please refrain from copy/paste anything from websites into the description field. They will be removed when discovered.

Recommended phone number formats: (903) 654-3210 or 903-654-3210 | Others may not auto-dial properly in some phones.

When to use Area or Point in Texas

Here is the Texas guidance on selecting Area or Point for Places in the Waze Map Editor. All areas are to be landmarked from fence line to fence line to include all parking lots, roads, and anything associated with the property.

The Primary Category for a Place is used to determine whether to use a Point or Area.

Place Name Harmonization

These name spellings are standardized so that Wazers will receive consistent results when searching in the client. Please use them when you edit one of these chain or franchise businesses.

If you don't find the business you're looking for, please use this form to submit the missing information.
Fast food chains or businesses that can sometimes be nested inside other businesses should be labeled as such. For example, if a Starbucks is inside Target or a Subway is inside Walmart, you would list it as Starbucks (inside Target) or Subway (inside Walmart) as the primary business name. This will allow for Wazers searching for a Starbucks or Subway to immediately know they may be routing to a coffee shop or sandwich shop with no drive-thru or standalone business as they may want or expect.

Eating / drinking establishments at airports, and known to be inside the secured area, should not be added in Waze.

If inside a military installation or area of restricted access, these establishments can be added with the tag of (Restricted Access) ; McDonald's (Restricted Access). This will still route Wazers to these businesses but it lets them know they must have the proper credentials to access the location.

Apartment complexes will use the category "Lodging" and should be placed at the main office. Use Office Hours if availableAssisted Living, Nursing Homes and Hospice will use the category "Lodging" and "Personal Care"

Texas GIS Websites

Major construction projects

See TxDot for a list of LONG TERM road closures & changes to traffic flow that impact the Waze map.

If you are aware or made aware of any long term closures (construction, work closures and emergency closures), please fill out this form. Your submission will be reviewed by US Champs and submitted to the Waze team upon approval.

I-35 (Austin to DFW)

SH-360 Toll Arlington/Grand Prairie/Mansfield

The new SH-360 tollway is in progress between I-20 and US-287. It will include 3-4 mainlanes in each direction along with direct connectors to US-287 in Mansfield.

SH-360 / I-30 Interchange Arlington

One of the last relics of the old Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike, the I-30 / SH-360 interchange, is getting a makeover. It will be upgraded to a four level stack interchange with continuous frontage roads on SH-360 and a reconfiguration of Six Flags Dr.

I-35E Dallas to Denton (35 Express)

Thirty miles of I-35E is being rebuilt from I-635 in Dallas to US-380 in Denton. It will include two tolled reversible express lanes, new interchanges at FM 407 and Belt Line Rd and new bridges across Lake Lewisville.

SH-183 / SH-114 / Loop 12 (Midtown Express)

The express lanes on SH-183 (Bedford) and SH-114 (Grapevine) will be extended eastward through Irving and past the SH-183/SH-114 merge into Dallas. Express lanes will also be extend on Loop 12 from I-35E to SH-183 in Irving.

Cameras

Currently, the only way to add cameras to the editor are from the app. When placing a camera in the app, drop a general error with "RLC W" where W = the direction the camera is facing. This will allow other editors to know which way the camera is facing when they go to approve it in the editor.

Red light cameras

Red Light Cameras are LEGAL in the State of Texas.

Contrary to popular belief, these cameras do not sit on the top of lights at an intersection. If you've gotten to an intersection, you've already passed the red light camera.These cameras mounted on traffic signals are used as part of the signal control. These compare sequential images of the intersection approach to determine if there is a vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle, bicycle, etc) waiting and will trigger the sequence. These devices CANNOT issue tickets.

There are traditional traffic monitoring cameras covering most of the major highways in the state. These send live feeds to the various traffic agencies around the state and are for monitoring traffic only.

Speed Limits

Where speed limits change

Speed limits should change where they legally go in effect for your state, that may be at the sign, a specified distance before the sign, or the nearest intersection. When a speed limit changes in the middle of a segment, a new junction should be added to support the SL change.

However a new junction should never be added for a SL if it will be within 200 feet of an existing junction, or potential junction.

A new junction should always be added if it will be more than 1,000 feet from the nearest existing, or potential junction.

Creating a new junction for a speed limit change

When creating a new junction solely for the sake of showing a speed limit change, you can attempt to get more value from the junction. Survey the area around the speed limit change, determine if there is a PLR or other segment which should be connected to the road and would result in a junction. You may find that there's a parking lot which could benefit from being added to the map within the allowable distance of 200 feet (or more depending on your area) to where the SL changes. In such a case connect that segment and use that junction. Otherwise you should create a new junction to show where the SL changes.

On roads where traffic for one turn direction typically backs up waiting to make the turn further than 200 feet, and traffic going straight or turning the other direction does not have to wait as long to pass through, turn delays can be affected even with the new junction 200 feet away. In these cases you may choose to extend the buffer zone to beyond the point where traffic backs up, and instead make the change at an existing junction node. These situations are governed by editor discretion and local guidance.

Click Expand for details on the rationale behind these rules.

It is very important that we do not create new junctions too close to existing intersections, yet marking the speed limit change too far can have a negative impact on the user experience.

The minimum distance of 200 feet was chosen because a distance less than that is negligible, and unnoticeable in the client experience. It is not much different than the delay we expect with GPS lag and error anyway. For example think of where you hear the turn prompts announced, they can sometimes precede a junction by up to 200 feet.

We have confirmed directly with the routing developers that adding a junction node connecting only 2 segments does not have an associated routing penalty. We have also confirmed that creating and adding new junction nodes where necessary using these above guidelines will not have a negative effect on route calculation.

However there is a legitimate concern when adding new junctions too close to existing intersections / interchanges, that they may interfere with and pollute the ability for Waze calculate accurate turn delays.

The reason to use a minimum of 200 feet from the nearest junction as a buffer is to account for turn delay calculations.
If we create junction nodes very close to intersections we will effectively eliminate Waze's ability to differentiate the time it takes to go straight, vs the time to turn left or right. A distance of less than 200 feet between junctions poses a significant risk to the ETA calculations (turn delays). Over 200 feet it is up to local practice , and the editor's discretion to determine if a junction node there will negatively impact turn delay calculations. We must stipulate a minimum buffer zone, but it doesn't need to be exact. The area between 200-1,000 feet is open to interpretation, editor discretion, and local guidance.

If an exit or turn lane does back up over 1,000 feet, it is unlikely that traffic beyond the 1,000 mark will be drastically affected by the new junction placed that far away. However specific exceptions with the consultation of Regional Coordinators, or State Managers will always be allowed.

The turn delay issue could potentially be mitigated by adding Junction Boxes to each of these situations to correct them. However doing so would result in a lot more work for editors, and a lot more strain on the servers. It would make it harder to manage these intersections since all the included segments, and turns get locked from editing. It will have an effect on route calculation timing as well. We therefore had to come up with a compromise that is still visibly accurate, without anything being noticeably different to the client user, yet maintaining the ability for Waze to calculate proper ETA timing through intersections.

Work zones

Speed limits in work zones are often lowered to protect workers and prevent collisions. If these speed limits appear on regulatory black and white signs, they MAY be added to the associated WME road segments. Speed limits should only be changed in work zones when the change will be in effect for at least 30 days.
Add the construction zone speed limit to the affected segments and place a [CONSTRUCTION] note on the map listing the official speed limit so when construction is complete, an editor can easily reset the speed limit.

Military Bases

Texas has a long-standing tradition for support the US military. If you have questions concerning any military base in the state, please do not hesitate to ask. All military bases in the state are set to the current installation standard.

All gates at the military bases are set to private road in/street out with some gates having restrictions on them for the various gate closures.

If you know of any changes in the hours of a gate, please let a US Champ know and they will adjust it accordingly.

All gates are locked at a level 5.

Landmarks approved for military bases are:

Commissary

PX/BX

Gas stations

Parks

Museums

To do list

Want to help out with the map in Texas? Add missing streets, Solve URs, ask questions to anyone listed below, and seek out advice when/where needed. Please adhere to the rules for editing.

Editors in the State

Discipline

Waze has been designed to be an open community with various levels of editors. Rank 5 and 6 editors are senior editors. They are here to help you and are to be respected at all times. Instructions from senior editors are to be followed, unless it conflicts with this page. If you have any questions or issues, please feel free to PM one of the rank 6s or 5s in the list (if you're having a problem with one, please PM the regional coordinators). We will try to handle the issue as quickly and peacefully as possible.

You may want to check common editing mistakes to see if you are editing properly. Although It is not possible to list every occurrence of problems which can occur in the editor, the following are some examples of what has happened in the past:

Deleting and redrawing roads

Creating mass amounts of parking lot roads

Creating roads on top of already existing roads

Disrespect to higher ranking editors

Not cleaning up your own mess

Not responding to private messages in a timely manner (usually 48 hours)

Willful damage to the map

Editing just to clear geometry nodes will result in an instant blocking of your editing rights

Everyone is allowed one free pass, but disciplinary actions after the first occurrence for the above may include: